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President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week faced off against U.S. senators who wanted to know her views on vaccines and whether she supported recent changes made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During Wednesday’s U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, Susan Monarez, Ph.D., fielded questions about Kennedy’s decision to dismiss the 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and appoint seven new ones. Senators also asked Monarez if she would consider rejecting the new committee’s recommendations.
If confirmed, Monarez would be tasked with accepting or rejecting ACIP’s recommendations on vaccination practices.
Monarez affirmed her belief that “vaccines save lives,” and pledged to prioritize vaccine availability. She said mRNA vaccines are “safe and with demonstrated efficacy,” and that she was unaware of any confirmed scientific link between vaccines and autism.
CDC Director Nominee Susan Monarez:
“The FDA has … approved the mRNA vaccines as safe and had demonstrated efficacy associated with them … We can have the confidence that we can put it in ourselves and our children.” pic.twitter.com/cplAL84ZDj
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) June 27, 2025
Monarez avoided directly answering questions from several Democratic senators about whether she disagreed with any of Kennedy’s decisions while in office.
The roughly two-hour hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) was held at the same time as the ACIP meeting that many senators said they were very concerned about.
The HELP committee has not yet scheduled a vote on whether to advance Monarez’s nomination to the full Senate.
Monarez pledges to rebuild trust in public health agencies
Trump nominated Monarez after the White House abruptly withdrew its nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead the agency. Weldon failed to secure enough votes, Politico reported, because of comments he made suggesting a link between autism and vaccines.
Monarez, who has a doctorate in microbiology and immunology, had served as acting director of the CDC before her nomination. She previously held roles at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
She was also previously deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created by the Biden administration to accelerate “high-risk, high reward” biomedical research. ARPA-H is modeled after the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Medical freedom advocates have voiced concerns about Monarez’s work in biosecurity and her role in these organizations.
In her opening remarks, she pledged to rebuild trust in public health agencies, modernize the CDC and local health infrastructure with state-of-the-art technologies, and strengthen the agency’s capacity for evidence-based rapid decision-making capabilities.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) used the hearing to sound the alarm about proposed cuts to Medicaid. Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) expressed frustration with cuts and changes to the CDC and asked Monarez about her role in those changes and whether she supported them.
Monarez largely evaded the questions, saying she had limited knowledge about the cuts and promising to look into any concerns raised.
Sanders also condemned Kennedy’s announcement Wednesday that the U.S. would end funding for the Gates Foundation-backed Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, claiming it will lead to 1.2 million preventable deaths. He asked Monarez if she agreed with Kennedy that “we should end our support for life-saving vaccines.”
“I think vaccines save lives,” Monarez responded. “I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines. I wasn’t involved in that decision-making. If I’m confirmed as a CDC director, I will certainly look into it, and I’m happy to follow up.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioned Monarez about whether she believed Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci acted appropriately when they suppressed dissenting views on COVID-19, including those of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now head of the National Institutes of Health.
“It is not something I would do,” she said, when pressed.
Paul also asked about U.S. public health agencies’ collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and about gain-of-function research during the pandemic and during her time at the CDC.
Monarez said she hadn’t had the opportunity to look at that research, but shared Paul’s concerns.
“There’s about 10 books written about it,“ Paul said. “Fifteen million people died. You’re going to be in charge of infectious disease, you know, you’d think you might have an opinion on, you know, where this came from and what happened.”
Watch the Senate HELP Hearing here:
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